In RTA cups currently, the rules stipulate that you must place first in every single race in every cup. This seems like overkill.

It's probably not necessary to force players to get 1st place in every race in RTA, imo. You can still get a gold without coming in first in every race, and Normal and Expert are already far more than hard enough without needing this extra stipulation.

I was thinking about doing some runs for Normal and Expert, but I probably won't unless this rule changes; it's just too random for me to want to put up with that.

Any thoughts?

Honestly, I wouldn't even force first place in the cups themselves either unless not getting first stops the credits from rolling after Victory Vehicles. As far as I'm concerned, as long as the credits roll at the end, your time should be valid. If you're getting worse placings, it stands to reason you'll also be getting worse times, which is its own "punishment" for mistakes, rather than completely invalidating what can be long, very random runs.

I would also suggest we take a look at the start timing; it probably makes more sense to have timing start on the last prompt before the weasels cutscene at the beginning of Traffic Troubles, which, depending on the progress of one's save file, may also require you to select whether you want to reset the game first and then select your difficulty, rather than just starting timing when selecting TT.

Current rules state the timer starts when I select TT, but I still have to select that I want to reset the game and that I want Beginner difficulty before the opening cutscene rolls. Changing it to the last prompt before the cutscene begins is consistent and makes the most sense, imo.

I am going to change a few rules for RTA, namely, the ones mentioned in this thread. I don't feel it is necessary to come in first in either the races or the cups, as long as the credits roll at the end. I also think the timing should start on the final input before the cutscene/first race starts. If anyone objects to these changes, please let me know.

I can retime the existing runs if needed (it would only make a several second difference or so; it's for convenience and consistency, not speed).

Having spent some more time with RTA, it becomes apparent that the only two sensible "base" categories for the game are Beginner and Normal/Expert/Time Attack (a combined category). This is because the only differences between those latter 3 modes are the level of AI (and the countdown timer in Time Attack); meaning there is no time save due to vehicle speed or course selection. Therefore, it makes more sense to simply have a catch-all category for any of those 3 modes, rather than a separate category each for Normal, Expert, and hypothetically Time Attack.

As a result, I have removed the Expert category, and am in process of updating the rules for the Normal category to allow runs of any of the 3 "five cups" difficulties (Beginner only comprises the first 3 cups in the game). That said, there's probably not any sensible reason to race on anything other than Normal, given the AI is more persistently annoying and will almost assuredly slow you down more on the higher difficulties (some future breakthrough notwithstanding).

Given the current lack of interest in RTA, we can probably safely remove the other unpopulated misc. categories save for 100% (though it's probably worth litigating exactly what 100% entails; this is not exactly obvious, as the current rules do not require one to get all gold trophies in Time Attack mode nor unlock the 21st track).

Alright, I've made a few changes and removed some empty full game categories. If anyone actually wants to run those categories, they can be re-added, but I don't think anyone does.

Made one final rule change: timing now starts on selecting LA from the world map, which allows you to restart if you quit out before finishing the first race. Because this game forcibly saves your cup progress, you are otherwise locked into the first few races unless you use a different save file. The new timing is the most convenient and makes grinding more palatable, while still starting before any races start, etc.

@L810, I updated your Beginner run to the new timing rules, which lowered it by 9 seconds.

The newest WRs were already done with the new timing, but now all of the older RTA runs have been updated to the new timing as well.

Removed 100% for now as there's no interest and it's not even a true 100%. Would need to come to an agreement about what exactly constitutes 100% and for there to be interest in doing runs.